


You Must Be This Tall

by ami_ven



Series: How About Forever [19]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsheplets, Established Relationship, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 04:04:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17738693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: “The sign says she can go on it, McKay.”





	You Must Be This Tall

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt # 299 "rollercoaster"

“This one!” cried twelve-year-old Zoe, bouncing on her toes and making her sneakers light up. “Let’s go on this one!”

Rodney looked up at the twisting metal rails of the roller coaster on the other side of the fence. “This one?” he repeated. “No, no, no, not this one.”

During their trips to Earth, they tried to do some of the traditional cliché childhood things that Zoe and Isaac missed by being raised on an alien city in another galaxy. Rodney usually took them to museums and historical sites, but John preferred more active locations – like amusement parks.

“Why not?” Zoe asked. “Mom can go with me.”

“Mom can do what now?” said John. He had five-year-old Isaac on his shoulders, holding onto their son’s ankles to keep him in place.

“Go on the roller coaster,” Zoe told him. “Can I?”

“You’re not tall enough,” protested Rodney.

His daughter scowled, then brightened. “Maybe I am!” she said. “I’ll go check!”

“Hey, wait—” Rodney began, but she was already racing across the walkway.

The faded plywood sign showed a ridiculous cartoon tiger, leaning on a ruler, beside the words _You must be this tall to ride_. Zoe stood in front of it, shuffling back until her heels hit the base of the sign, and her head came to barely an inch above the bright red line.

“Oh, no,” muttered Rodney.

John laughed and swung Isaac down from his shoulders. “The sign says she can go on it, McKay.”

“I should have known she’d inherit your adrenaline-junkie foolhardiness,” Rodney said, then he sighed. “Fine, if you want to go on that metal deathtrap, I won’t try to stop you. But, Zoe, if you throw up, be sure to do it on your mother.”

“Gee, thanks,” John drawled.

Rodney offered him a sarcastic smile and held out his hand to Isaac. “Hey, Ike, while Mom and Zoe are doing that, what do you say we get some ice cream?”

“Ice cream!” agreed Isaac. “Let’s get ice cream!”

“That is an excellent idea,” Rodney agreed. “We’ll be right on that bench over there, when you two daredevils are done. Or should I have a medical team waiting?”

“It’s just a roller coaster,” John laughed. He leaned over to kiss Rodney, but broke off with another laugh as Zoe grabbed his hand, pulling him away.

“Come on, Mom,” she said. “Come _on_.”

John let her lead him over to the entrance of the ride. The line was long enough that they had only just reached the front by the time Rodney and Isaac had bought their ice cream and moved to sit on the bench, and Rodney watched them disappear into the covered boarding platform.

“Look!” said Isaac, pointing an already-sticky finger toward the ride. “Mom ‘n Zoe!”

Even at this distance, it was easy to see John’s crazy hair in the front of the first car, with the smaller figure of Zoe beside him. There was an audible clicking as the roller coaster started, then it was off, the riders shrieking as it went. The clicking grew louder as it gained speed, clattering around the curves to a wicked corkscrew until it started slowing again and rolled back into the platform.

The rest of Rodney’s family were the first ones out from around the far side of the roller coaster – Zoe holding John’s hand and bouncing even more excitedly than before she’d gone on the ride.

“Again!” she was giggling, when they got into earshot. “Again, again!”

“I take it you didn’t hate it?” Rodney drawled.

“It was the _best_ ,” Zoe told him. “Can we go again?”

John turned a questioning expression to his husband, who snorted and waved a spoonful of triple-fudge ice cream. “Go, be reckless, have fun.” 

“Yay!” Zoe yelled, and John darted in to kiss Rodney briefly before she pulled him away again.

Isaac watched them go. “Dad?” he asked.

“You can’t go on any roller coasters until you’re as tall as Zoe,” Rodney told him.

His son scrunched up his nose, looking horrified. “I don’t wanna go on a roller coaster,” he said. “Mom ‘n Zoe are _nuts_.”

Rodney laughed. “At least I raised one of you right.”

THE END


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